


To Relinquish

by Ibenholt



Series: Luke/Aisha Rosen - (The Little Crack Pairing That Could) [4]
Category: Ai no Kusabi
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Other, Surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:08:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22728907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibenholt/pseuds/Ibenholt
Summary: Luke's secret is revealed, and Aisha must make a choice.
Relationships: Luke/Aisha Rosen
Series: Luke/Aisha Rosen - (The Little Crack Pairing That Could) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1881037
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Ai no Kusabi Creative Challenge, Ai no Kusabi Creative Challenge 2020





	To Relinquish

**Author's Note:**

> To the ANK-fandom!  
> Happy Valentine's Day!

Luke could taste blood already, but he didn’t care. He jumped over trash cans and pushed past people as quickly as he could.

Had to lose them.

Had to get away.

He cursed his own body.

13 years of Guardian’s piss-poor food, and then the scraps from Ceres had still somehow made him tall and built. No way were they gonna lose sight of him.

Darkmen.

The Darkmen will get you, the toothless old ones had chanted back home, beat the snot outta ya!

He swore he felt someone swipe at him, then heard them curse as they fell to the asphalt.

Fucking hope that hurt, he laughed breathlessly to no one.

He jumped into a side street and gaped.

Dead end.

Cornered.

Aisha spent more time with Orphe than they cared to.

Which really meant any time at all. But situations arose where being chummy the head of security was beneficial.

And as they saw Luke’s battered body with Orphe and his biggest thugs over him, Aisha realized it was only because they were close with their brother that Luke wasn’t strung up and dead. The human looked up as the brutal beating paused, and stared at them,

“Aish!”

He gasped when Orphe’s boot connected with his stomach. 

“Stop that at once.”

Aisha commanded. They stepped in front of Luke and pushed the bigger thug into the wall.

“Is there a reason why you are mistreating my gardener?”

“Failure to comply, fleeing, resisting arrest, beating up my men…” Orphe counted on his fingers, “Oh, yes, and he is a mongrel.”

“I was well aware.”

Aisha said, and Orphe’s eyes widened. Aisha sat down and wiped a little blood from the corner of Luke’s mouth. He looked horrid. The skin around his eyes was already growing dark. His mouth was bloodied and his lower lip was starting to swell a little. Aisha didn’t dare think about how he looked underneath his clothes. Clothes they had bought him.

“Iason had mongrels working for him all the time, why should I be treated any differently?”

“Iason…! I reigned that in, Aisha. You cannot have been this foolish.”

“He’s a good gardener. I didn’t bother to check his credentials.”

The two brutes slowly showed themselves out at Orphe’s silent command.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

Orphe hissed, “Are you that desperate to humiliate me?”

“You’re doing quite a good job of that yourself, brother.”

They were suddenly face to face,

“I’m throwing this garbage back into Ceres, or I’ll let my boys pass him around until he dies from whatever they feel like doing to him. Either way, he’s not going back to that little greenhouse of yours.”

Aisha suddenly gripped his face, and the surprise was visible in Orphe’s eyes,

“You forget yourself. You may be in charge in here, but I am the lord of everything that surrounds this miserable little station. You will give me 20 minutes with my gardener, and I will decide what happens to him. And while I do, I will try to forget that you, darling brother, have damaged my property.”

They released Orphe, who stumbled to his feet and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Luke’s fingers were bloody and dirty, reaching for Aisha’s face and helplessly batting at their tresses,

“Aish… oh fuck… fuck, I thought they were gonna kill me…” he moaned, “I’m so fucking glad to see you…”

“How could you lie to me.”

It felt like a foolish thing to say when they couldn’t put true intonation into it. But they were hurt. 

“I took you in and gave you work. And as if that wasn’t enough I even…”

Aisha paused, and Luke groaned loudly in pain as he sat up, making them level, 

“No… Aish, it’s not like that, I swear. I know this looks bad! I just… just gimme a moment, the room is spinnin’…”

They grabbed onto him and held him steady. Even now, despite the metallic smell of blood and the sweat that covered him, even with the swelling lip and eyes that were being shut, Aisha just wanted to lie in his arms and forget their worries. Hadn’t they theorized that this could have been the case? Luke talks like a mongrel, they had said. Why had Aisha refused to listen?

“I’m not interested, Luke.”

“But you gotta hear me out!”

“I will get you some treatment and then you will return to Ceres.”

“No!”

“You cannot stay here.”

“But I love you!”

Aisha just looked at him.

“How dare you.”

“I mean it!”

“Don’t be stupid, Luke. Do you think I’d fall for something like that now?”

A grief-stricken expression somehow managed to spread over his poor face. A small voice in Aisha’s head whispered that Luke wore his heart on his sleeve. He was like a dog at times. Big, kind and too silly to lie. But mongrels lied. They stole. They simply had to, in order to live.

“D-didn’t this…”

Luke reached for his necklace, only to realize it wasn’t there. The present they had given him not too long ago. He fumbled helplessly with fingers Aisha was starting to wonder if were broken,

“No… no, no, no! He took it! The blondie! Or-or maybe one of those guys…”

“Of course.”

“Aisha, please!”

“You belong in Ceres. You’ve had your fun, it’s time to go back.”

They rose slowly, and Luke fell forward, standing on all four. Then, as Asiha turned to the door, Luke’s arms were suddenly around their waist. He was trembling, getting blood and dirt on their robes.

“Give me the chip.”

“What?”

“The PAM-chip. Give it to me.”

Aisha couldn’t look shocked, but internally, they swore their mechanisms suddenly went faster. No mongrel had accepted the PAM-chip in what Aisha believed was Jupiter’s asencscion. A few after the independence of Ceres, certainly, but never after.

For Luke to accept the PAM-chip was like him tying himself up to Midas and submitting to forever be seen by the ever-watchful eyes of Tanagura.

“You cannot…”

“I want it! If that’s the only way you’ll believe me, I’ll do it!”

Aisha turned around, grasping Luke so that he didn’t fall.

“I didn’t tell you I’m a mongrel, but I never lied about lovin’ you. And I sure didn’t crawl into bed with you to get special treatment! You… you invited me, remember? You… you were the one… lowerin’ yourself…” 

His head suddenly fell backwards, and Aisha called for Orphe as they gathered him up in their arms.

“The PAM-chip?”

Orphe seemed just as surprised as Aisha had been.

“Does he understand what that means?”

“He was delirious when he asked for it, but the request was made.”

Orphe leaned back,

“And I suppose you are fine with this?”

“Don’t meddle in my affairs. Gideon is already pestering me.”

“With good reason. What exactly is it about mongrels that fascinate so much, Aisha?”

“None of your business. And I don’t like what you’re implying.”

“It’s hard not to imply when not long ago I had to insure that Riki had to be confined to Iason’s home in order to protect your pet.”

“Stop talking about them.”

“I will not. You weren’t so foolish that you made this one your pet, but if you in any way think Mother is going to look kindly on this…”

“Mother doesn’t look my way anymore, Orphe. Nor yours. Haven’t you noticed? We are free.”

They leaned forward,

“Mother doesn’t care about us anymore, Riki is dead, and Iason…”

The door opened, and the thugs entered with Luke between them. He’d been given a round with a healing wand and could walk on his own.

“And there’s the mongrel of the hour. My dear sibling as informed me that you requested a PAM-chip.”

Orphe walked around his desk and over to Luke, grabbing his chin,

“Do you still want it? Or did we rough you up a bit much and you lost control?”

Luke glared and Orphe snorted,

“It would be a fine deal for you, hm? Stay in my sibling’s garden and roll yourself in luxury? I can understand how, after being nothing by filth your whole life, it feels like sweet relief to even look in through Aisha’s windows. But you are a mongrel, taking a citizen’s job, which I cannot allow.”

Aisha noted that as Orphe spoke, Luke was only looking at them, pleadingly. Orphe made a good point. Luke’s work was hard and taxing. But he always came to the penthouse with a smile on his face. He enjoyed the luxuries Aisha provided, but he never asked for them. He even seemed embarrassed to ask for a glass of water at times.

And as for themselves, they struggled with the thought of being alone again. No pet could replace what they had with Luke. The outlandish conversations, the comfort and the sex now seemed impossible to part with. The thought of never feeling Luke’s hair between their fingers again seemed to make their chest tighten… 

“Aish?”

They felt wood splinter and realized they had made a nasty dent in Orphe’s desk. Luke had tried to step forward, but was being held back.

“Aisha, the tree that desk is made out of is extinct now!”

“Raoul will make another, calm yourself…”

Orphe huffed and turned back to Luke,

“Well?”

“I’ll take the damn chip.”

Orphe uncrossed his arms and the smug smile faltered,

“Really. Well. Prep him.”

“I will do it,” Aisha said quietly, “I doubt your gorillas have a surgeon’s touch.”

Luke was placed in a chair, and a small cart with the chip, numbing gel and a pair of tweezers and a double-duty scalpel was brought out.

One of the brutes reddened as Aisha’s glove came off, and those pearly white fingers tenderly rubbed the gel onto Luke’s ear lobe. They looked into his eyes,

“This chip will keep track of your locations, no matter where you go. If you commit a crime, you will be tracked down and killed. In severe cases, the chip will explode, effectively killing you. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

They sliced Luke’s earlobe open with the laser blade. He grit his teeth, but otherwise didn’t flinch. The laser cauterized the blood, leaving a dry path for the tweezers as they placed the chip inside. Turning the scalpel, a different laser closed the wound. Luke didn’t meet his eyes. 

“Well, it’s tracking him and everything seems in order.”

Orphe looked at his screen, visibly unhappy. 

“In that case, we are leaving.”

Aisha said, turning around. Luke was almost out the door, and despite what had just happened, Aisha was gripped by the fear that he would run.

“Just one last thing, Aisha.”

They were about to tell Luke to go to the car, but he was already out of the station.

“What?”

“We are not doing this to be brats, you know. We worry for you. And I know you don’t want to talk about Iason, and certainly not be compared to him, but you leave us little choice. Do not make me regret not killing this scum.”

“You could kill him now. You have the means.”

“Sure. But the paperwork is a pain.”

Aisha once again turned, and Orphe rose,

“Aisha. He is just a mongrel. He just cares about today.”

“It wouldn’t hurt you to live in the now, Orphe. Have a nice day.”

It made sense, didn’t it?

Doing this…

Luke would be safe now.

But how safe was anyone with a tracking device in their head, really?

Luke kept moving the ice pack they had given him around.

It was like he hadn’t just given up his freedom.

His freedom to starve. Freedom to sell his body for cigarettes and booze and a hot meal. Freedom to never get a job. Freedom to rot away and die at 40 if he was lucky and made no trouble. 

Aisha thought bitterly. 

Luke suddenly turned to them.

“You’re not throwin’ me out?”

“No.”

“Firing me?”

“No.”

“… then what?”

“What do you want?”

Aisha didn’t stop him as he inched closer and slowly dug his fingers into their hair,

“Thought I already told you.”

He mumbled into Aisha’s ear,

“Luke, you’re hurt…”

“I didn’t lie, Aish. Hurts my fuckin’ feelings that you think I did…”

He was angry and tore at Aisha’s robes and undid buttons and lacings so quickly that they could surmise that if those fingers had been broken, they no longer were. They heard his belt buckle open, and heard his jeans shift, and suddenly they were lying down with their robes around them like sheets, legs spread and with Luke’s fingers inside,

“Luke…”

“’S right… I’m the only one who can do this to ya. Tell me you like it.”

“I like it.”

They squirmed as Luke started teasing their nipple with his teeth. They grabbed onto his hair, moaning softly as he sank inside. Aisha trembled. They didn’t think they could,

“I love you. I love that everyone thinks you’re so goddamn scary when you’re actually the cutest person I’ve ever met. I love that you’re tough. I love that you’re so fucking pretty I can’t believe you’re real half the time.”

“Luke…”

Now they whined.

“But most of all, I love that you’re you. And it fuckin’ infuriates me that you think I wouldn’t… that I’d pretend…!”

He thrust so roughly that Aisha was lifted off the seat for a second. They were about to moan Luke’s name again, but it disappeared as he leaned down and kissed them hard.

Doubt was like a drop of black paint in a bucket of white paint. More than anything, they wanted to forget that this entire day had happened. Just close their eyes and lose themselves as Luke slowly, desperately proved to them how much he loved them.

“Yea, that took it outta me…”

They had stopped in front of the penthouse, and Luke was struggling to get his trousers back on. Aisha leaned over and helped him. 

“You’re stupid. I told you you were hurt.”

“I dunno, you didn’t seem to mind all that much.”

Aisha huffed before picking Luke up in their arms,

“It’s not that bad…”

“No lying.”

Aisha walked through the garden and completely overlooked their furniture’s surprised face, instead asking him to fill the tub.

“Aish…”

“Stop it. I’m trying to help.”

Luke was naked, and as much as Aisha was craving another round of love making, his human clearly needed something else. They lowered Luke into the water.

“Ouch…”

“I know it hurts.”

“Had worse. I think. Can’t quite remember when, though...”

Aisha picked up a soft sponge and started cleaning his arm,

“You don’t have to…”

“Would you prefer my Furniture?”

“Fuck no.”

“There you are.”

Once they got to work on his back, Aisha slowed slighty,

“How is your ear?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s fine.”

“Are you certain? If you experience itching, don’t worry. It won’t last.”

“Cool.”

“And you should feel no discomfort when sleeping.”

“Aish?”

Luke turned around, grimacing as either his back or arm argued,

“Are you trying to apologize?”

“I think I am.”

“Oh.”

“In some ways wish the PAM-chip was unnecessary. Especially for you.”

Luke nodded. Now it was coming together.

“Yea. I don’t like the thought of there being a bomb in my head.”

“… Luke?”

“Yeah?”

“… there is no bomb.”

“Huh?”

“There is… there is an agent in it that can momentarily paralyze you, making it easier for law enforcement to find you. And if that happens, they will most likely kill you to maintain the illusion. But make no mistake, you are still being tracked.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I trust you.”

Quietly, Luke leaned forward and put his arms around them,

“Thanks, Aish.”

Aisha buried their face in Luke’s hair. Their human’s hair. Then they lifted him out of the tub and carried him back to their room, not caring that he was flailing slightly and dripping on the floor, 

“Aish! What the heck!”

They placed him on the bed and put a hand on each side of his head,

“You’re not allowed to run away, you do understand that?”

“I do.”

“And you are not allowed to commit crimes, no matter how minor.”

“I won’t, promise.”

Nodding, Aisha fetched a towel and dried Luke off quickly before helping him into a robe. He snuggled up to them, and Aisha played with his hair,

“I realize that the only thing you have in the slum is freedom.”

“Yea.”

“I suppose I feel… remorse. Your dishonesty hurt, because I belived it extended further than just where you were from.”

“I know. And that snooty friggin’… blondie bro of yours was right. I have a sweet deal here. But… if you were a mongrel too, we’d be pairing partners in Ceres. You know that, right?”

“We would?”

“Fuck yea we would. How can you even… Alright, enough bullshitting, gimme your hand.”

Aisha offered their hand, and Luke took one of the many bands around his wrist and put one on Aisha’s.

Plastic mirror-shiny silver. A blue stone, also plastic.

“It ain’t that fancy, but it’s mine, and so are you. Now you’ll know every time you see it.”

Luke tapped his ear lobe,

“This chip don’t mean I’m Midas property. It means I’m yours. And that thing means you’re mine.”

“It’s pretty.”

Aisha said. Luke grinned,

“I’ll get ya something a lil’ more expensive somewhere down the line, but…”

He paused when Aisha crawled over to him and sat down on his lap,

“No. I like this. I will keep it.”

“Cool.”

Luke answered softly, accepting the kiss coming his way. It hurt him that Aisha thought this had been a charade. But he liked a challenge, and if Aish needed him to prove that he loved them every day for the rest of his life, he’d do it.


End file.
